Don’t miss it!
Entry to which runs from today until Saturday at The Courtyard Playhouse Al Quoz, is free, but requires registration. Gwen Watson, Mary Claire Watson and Aileen Kelly. our own solitary existential angst.”
Cast within these confines, however, the crew of Electric Ballroom are confident the audience will not feel disconnected.
Gwen Watson, a threetime Edinburgh Fringe Award recipient who plays the oldest sister, broken by rejection and twisted by the helplessness in her own life that compels her to control the others, says: “I think any woman who is lucky enough to have a sister, will identify to some extent with the relationship between Clara [second sister] and Breda. Even the strongest sisterly bond can turn from jovial and loving to hate-filled in an instant, and there are few people you can be as brutally honest with.”
NOSTALIGIA
For Aileen Kelly, who plays Clara, the script invokes nostalgia. “Having grown up in the ’70s and ’80s in the west of Ireland I had the privilege of observing and being part of life in a beautiful and often times isolated place,” she explains.
The only male figure in this women-centric tale is the village fool, Patsy (Johnny Dillon), who delivers fish — and a needle-eye view of escape — to the women.
Dillon, who began his career in Scotland, talks of the rise of Dubai: “The growth of local arts festivals [in Dubai] and an array of purpose built performance spaces is hugely encouraging… The opening of the Dubai Opera and the success of La Perle by Dragone has introduced event productions to many people who may not have been a traditionally theatregoing crowd.”
In context, Dubai, built on the backbone of steel, concrete and tall dreams, has unshackled itself from the chains of isolation; from a port of transit to a hub of diverse cultures. But can the three reclusive women really follow suit?